Interior designer Nicolette Horn brings tropical island decor from around the world into her family's Norwegian home.

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Oslo lies just 600 miles from the Arctic Circle. But step through the front door of Nicolette Horn's house, and you might think you were closer to the equator. Which is exactly the mood Horn, an interior designer who recently opened a design shop in her adopted city, wants her house to convey.

"When I walk in at the end of the day, I feel totally at home," she says.

For Horn, simply defining "home" could have been complex, to say nothing of creating an enduring one for herself, her husband, Hans Herman, and their three children. Horn grew up in the Bahamas with a German mother and a Greek father, and as a young adult, she lived in London, Paris, and New York after backpacking halfway around the world. And she continues to travel extensively.

But no matter how many places she's put down roots, none has reversed the potent spell cast by her Bahamian upbringing, at least not when it comes to her personal style. Exotic island influences abound throughout the house, in the form of palm trees both real and artificial, monkey and bamboo motifs, raffia walls and jute carpets, and a tropical-fruit–bowl color scheme. It makes for a delicious surprise in a city that receives less than six hours of dim sunlight on a midwinter day. "I wanted to feel lifted up when I came inside," Horn says, "and for me, that means feeling like I am in the Bahamas."

This despite the house's resolutely Scandinavian exterior, which is dark brown with deep red accents. "It's a Hansel-and-Gretel house," Horn says with a laugh.

Yet the interior is no mere replica of a Caribbean residence. Horn accents island style with Asian touches — pagodas on the dining table, lacquered furnishings in the living room — as well as with Scandinavian notes, including candlelit chandeliers, mirrors to multiply the light, and muslin-covered Gustavian-style chairs. And she has a soft spot for the breezy sensibility of summers on the east end of Long Island, which can be felt in the kick-off-your-shoes elegance of the arrangements.

Layered into this cheerful mix are quirky, personal objects — pieces she and her husband have collected over the years, such as coral from Palm Beach and a gilt side table from a Paris flea market — as well as ideas she has picked up on her travels. After seeing a green room in St. Petersburg, Russia, for example, Horn painted her dining room the same shade. Yet as idiosyncratic as the mixture can be, Horn is never flippant about her choices. "I never get rid of anything," she says. "If I love a piece, there's always a home for it somewhere."

For a designer, it can take as much confidence to stay committed to an object or style as it can to change things up for the sake of novelty. And Horn has always had a strong inner compass when it comes to design. It's what landed her a job working with Nina Campbell in London fresh out of college, despite a complete lack of formal design training (she'd majored in French literature and studio art). She met her husband in London and, before long, the pair moved to New York, where Horn enrolled in the New York School of Interior Design, then took a position with the design firm Cullman & Kravis.

Despite the impressive résumé she was building, Horn wanted to slow down once kids came along — Frederik, now 17, Karina, 15, and Olympia, 12 — and so she and her husband moved the family to Norway. "In Oslo, you can walk to school or ride your bike. It's safe," she says.

But after a decade of raising children, Horn was itching to jump back into the design world. Only this time, she wanted to do it on different terms. Two years ago, she opened a home store, Palmyre, in downtown Oslo, followed by a custom-design studio. "I wanted to focus on making and finding beautiful things," Horn says. So now she travels the world in search of unusual objects, both to sell to the public at retail and to meet the specific needs of her clients. "I like giving people beautiful options, then letting them figure out what to do with them," she says.

Fourteen years ago, Horn's idea of "beautiful options" might not have been so compatible with that of her Oslo compatriots. "Norway is a small country, and people used to copycat each other," she says. "But now people are starting to be more daring. And that's been really fun for me." Her retail outlet offers an abundance of ways for customers to take playful chances with their interiors.

Pal myre also happens to be the exclusive Scandinavian source for Quadrille fabrics. And it offers custom-designed carpets and bed linens — "whatever thread count you like." Two years ago, Horn completely redid the bedrooms of her Oslo home; she wanted to try out the materials she'd be selling, to live with them firsthand so that she could offer them to her clients with confidence.

One thing she didn't need to try out, however, was her company's philosophy: "One must maintain a little bit of summer, even in the middle of winter." She has been living with it all along.